Fairfax

Works by four winners of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Young Talent Awards will be on view through Sept. 20 at the museum, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. The winners are Joe Fay, Karla Klarin, Jim Morphesis and Don Sorenson. The award includes a $3,000 grant and selection of a work for the museum's collection.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has received a $500,000 grant from Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. Inc. for the new Pavilion for Japanese Art, museum director Earl A. Powell III announced. This is the largest corporate grant the museum has received for the pavilion, which will house the world-renowned Shin'enkan Collection of Edo-period Japanese paintings and art, Powell said. The 32,100-square-foot pavilion is scheduled to open in 1987.

Part of your story, "Dusting Off Old Fairfax," (Times, Nov. 4) is at odds with what I remember. I was there starting in 1920 at age 7, and except for the war years have been there ever since. The maps from the time may show Sherman, as the area was then known, to have been largely empty, but it was not. It was a town, alive and well. It grew up around the old car barns for what came to be the Pacific Electric Railway, in an area now occupied by the Pacific Design Center. The railway was the area's main employer.

For the past 40 years, there has been a scene on Fairfax. In 1968, for instance, the so-called Borscht Belt between Beverly and Clinton was also a mecca for the Love Generation. Bizarrely costumed flower children trekked up and down the avenue, passing out incense, panhandling or checking out hippie businesses such as the Psychedelic Candle Shop or I'm a Hog for You Baby, a mod clothing store that saluted the kosher markets across the street with a sign featuring an enormous pig.

Bob Braswell is only 25 years old and in his second season as coach at Cleveland High School in Reseda, but he is still a man of the world, basketball-wise. Two consecutive trips to the City 4-A championship game make him so. He had also faced Fairfax three times during the regular season, so when he laid out the Cavaliers' game plan for meeting No. 4, this time for the City 4-A championship, no less, he spoke from experience.

There was no mere hint of recollection, such as when the hero flashes back to another time and place in a movie dream sequence. For Eddie Hill and many of his Cleveland High teammates, their 46-45 loss to Fairfax on Saturday in an L. A. Games boys' basketball quarterfinal was more than a little reminiscent of a recent loss to the Lions. "It was more than just vaguely familiar," Hill said. "I can't believe it actually happened again." Four months ago, Fairfax shocked Cleveland, 53-51, in a second-round City Section 4-A Division playoff game at Cleveland, coming from behind to steal a win in the final 10 seconds.

Shaphan Roberts scored 18 points to lead 13th-ranked Fairfax to a 61-48 victory over Grant Wednesday in a City Section, Division 4-A, first-round game at Fairfax. Fairfax improved to 21-5. Grant finished its season 17-6. No. 20 Fremont 78, Palisades 59--Calvin Patterson scored 34 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the Pathfinders (20-5) over the Dolphins at Fremont.

Is there, at long last, a legitimate pretender to the basketball throne of Crenshaw High School, defending state champion and the dominant team in the Los Angeles City Section the last 15 years? Could be. It could be defending 3-A City champion Fairfax, led by Prince of Players Sean Higgins, a 6-8 junior who is considered one of the best in the country, and a strong retinue that includes 6-5 junior J. D. Green and 6-6 sophomore Chris Mills.

It probably ranks right up there with the most embarrassing on-court experiences that Chris Mills has ever had. The scene: seconds into the first quarter of Tuesday night's game with Cleveland High at Fairfax. The particulars: Mills, the 1987 City Section 4-A Division player of the year, streaking toward the basket, ball in hand, ready to hand-blast some orange paint off the back of the rim with a dunk that would make women and children cringe.

A few minutes before Mater Dei High School was to play Fairfax for the Southern California Division I boys' basketball championship, Monarch Coach Gary McKnight took a stroll down press row in the Sports Arena. McKnight had been watching Fairfax, the state's top-ranked team, warming up, and he saw something familiar. He turned to a group of reporters and announced: "They're tight. They're No. 1, undefeated and they're supposed to win the game. "I can see it in their eyes.